I was looking to switch to central air conditioning back in June 2015. I received quotes from a few companies, but decided to go with Reliance because the salesperson made me feel like this company cared.
What I experienced in the past two years was the exact opposite.
I should start this off by saying I only got my A/C unit from Reliance and my furnace was installed with a different company. Six months after my A/C was installed, my furnace failed in January 2016-- or so I thought. It was the middle of the coldest time of year and temperatures in my home were dropping. I was so worried for the welfare of my family. I called my furnace company immediately and was charged over a hundred/two hundred dollars for their tech to come diagnose what happened. It turned out, it wasn't a furnace issue at all; The furnace was fine. It just wasn't communicating with the thermostat properly. It turned out the wiring for the A/C unit to communicate with the thermostat wasn't installed properly 6 months prior. As a result, the furnace was unable to communicate with the thermostat. In other words, problems with the Reliance install resulted in other things failing in my home.
It took many phone calls, many hours of being put on hold, many hours of being ignored, many hours of headache for Reliance to admit they screwed up. It felt like I was pulling their teeth each time I called and I was just a pestering burden. I did not feel like a valued customer at all. The entire process took me many hours of taking time away from work just to deal with this.
I was not impressed that their techs did not install their own system correctly and actually endangered my family by causing problems with my furnace in winter time. To have the gall to deny the responsibility for that was something that was reprehensible.
Luckily, after many phone calls, Reliance did finally admit they were wrong and I was covered under their 1-year warranty for this. I thought this would be the end of my headaches with Reliance and the A/C system. I was patient and let this slide. I decided not to write a poor review and didn't ask for my money back for the initial diagnosis. The problem was fixed and I decided to let it go.
It's now June 13, 2017. It's actually just shy of 2 years from my install date. A day or two ago, I noticed my home wasn't cooling. I called a trusted A/C technician who has done work for my friends and family, and he diagnosed that my compressor for my A/C unit has failed. I thought, two years?! That's insane! Most of my friends and family members have not had problems with their units for 5+ years. Then again, my friends and family members have not used Reliance before.
The quality of what they sold me is not worth $3000. I should emphasize that I did not purchase the 5-year extended warranty because I did not realize I would have this many problems with their parts and labour. Based on my experiences, their 5-year warranty should be calculated as a part of their price of what they sell, given how often it fails. I feel like they are trying to make money off your costly repairs.
But not to worry, my independent A/C technician said, even though I was out of my 1-year warranty, the parts should be covered by Goodman (the A/C compressor manufacturer). I called Goodman and Goodman explained it's true, the parts are covered, but for the labour, I'd have to call Reliance and get them to install the compressor. I called Reliance back and they said **at minimum**, it will cost me $1300 in labour to replace the A/C compressor and that there's nothing they can do for me because I'm out of my 1-year warranty.
I explained to the customer support person, Donna, that it hasn't even been 2 years yet with this A/C unit and I've already had 2 major problems with this unit and this company. She apologized profusely but said there was nothing she could do.
Really, Reliance? You bungle your initial install, resulting in endangering my family in winter time, refuse to acknowledge responsibility for that until I waste many hours of my time calling you to fix it, and now at the hottest time of year, your A/C unit fails and there's nothing you can do about it unless I pay at least $1300 in labour? They said it would cost more if they find other issues, by the way.
I'm not the type to complain and write poor reviews, but this is my limit. Reliance is the least reliable company I've ever dealt with. If you want to be abused, ignored, and regularly mistreated, go with Reliance. Otherwise, shop elsewhere.
This was one of the biggest mistakes I've made and I'll never shop Reliance ever again.
